[treadhead]

Lately I've been pondering what my next upgrade might be to improve my productivity.

My current setup is a used Printa 770 4-head / 1-station press with a flash cure unit.

I've been finding myself doing alot (80%) of my jobs as Print-Flash-Print which seems to really slow things down.

Any suggestions on how I might improve my speed? It doesn't appear to me that adding a conveyor dryer would help as I don't find myself waiting for the flash unit to final cure the shirts....it's more the flash time for each color needing to be flashed (touching colors or needing more opacity).

Thanks for any recommendations....

John

 

[tpitman]

What are you doing while the shirts cure under the flash that you feel isn't adding a lot of time to your printing? Flashing on a single station press is time-consuming enough, but the 20 seconds or more that it takes to cure a shirt adds up pretty quick. It's not as if you can be loading or unloading another shirt, or much of anything else that you have to do anyway in the printing process. A conveyor dryer means that instead of waiting that 20 or more seconds, the shirt is off the press and a new one in on and getting printed. The only other thing you can do is get a press with more print stations, ideally a minimum of 4.

 

[suzette70]

I'm in the same boat. On 1 color jobs I do fine with the 4 color/ 1 station press. I just set up a station next to me and lay the shirt there for the final cure while I am putting another shirt on the press. But, for multi color jobs, to increase production, I would(and am) get a multi station press and a conveyor dryer. Too, all the flash curing and final curing on the station will eventually warp the platen.

Suzette70

 

[TeddyRocky]

A conveyor dryer makes a world of a difference.

 

[marcelolopez]

An extra station, either integrated on the press or separated (as I have) so you don't have to wait for the curing time. And once it is printed, put it in the conveyor. It makes a BIG difference.

 

[treadhead]

Thanks for all the responses folks!

The reason I didn't feel a dryer would make a difference is that when I already remove the shirt from the platen and put it under the flash unit on a seperate stand. During the 20 sec curing cycle I am loading another shirt and printing my first color. It usually times out that the cure cycle ends about the time I swing the flash over to flash the shirt on the platen. While the shirt is flashing, I remove the shirt from the stand.

So, I was thinking that if I could be printing another shirt while one is flashing...that would help speed things up.

John

 

[drivernumberone]

i' have to agree with everyone else as far as getting a multi-station press and or conveyor dryer. Another thing you might want to think about is re-organizing your print area to make for optimum efficiency. Less road bumps in your movements means faster printing time.... not to say you haven't done that already though.

 

[treadhead]

i' have to agree with everyone else as far as getting a multi-station press and or conveyor dryer. Another thing you might want to think about is re-organizing your print area to make for optimum efficiency. Less road bumps in your movements means faster printing time.... not to say you haven't done that already though.

Hey..who let you into my backroom??

Yeah...that is something I'm running into today...VERY frustrating! Need to organize things a bit better for sure.

I found a Ryonet video with the flash unit and see how multiple stations would help a bunch with another flash unit.